Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-01-23

| trtbN's iblutaO ttiIf hdt kittst NV
for his children, but all his sons wer,
very wild except Jose Emilio, who is {
lawyer and the executor OF his father
vast estate. He is short and light com
plexioncd, while all the rest of tht
family are tall, slender, and very dark
The children are scattered all over tn,
globe.
"TITE LIGHT FANTASTIC.
We are tremendous dancers here il
New York. Winter md summer tn,
fiddle and the feet beat time together
IN The halls of Frenchtown we see the
most lissome women and graceful men
The ladies wear gay colors in check
End dresses, and have the prctties'
ways, acting and flirting, and often lift
ing their gowns insinuatingly just t.
disclose an inch of white muslin IL
! Dutchtown, on the east side, the very
babies waltz in the streets and even il
the adults do sometimes sweep around
with the heft and force OF animated
cannon-bells, and lift their partners of
the floor, they are nearly Away
graceful. And then the Irish at a
| downtown ball-how certain the mu-
sic is to reach down to the feet, even
of the girls, and set them triling with
their heels and patting with their toes
while their dresses trembled with Dor
rowed excitement. The most fervor,
though, is at the Scotch balls and
dances after supper, when a reel is
called. The girls are in one row and
the men in another, advancing, re-
treating, wheeling, now with one foot
up and now with the other. The less
expert couples drop out pair by pair
until at last only the best couple is left.
The others press the walls and look on
with applauding shouts The woman,
red-faccd and laughing, comes to her
finest movements, and lifts her dress
that they may be seen and appreciated,
keeping her elbows akimbO. Shouts
greet the innocent but enthusiastic act,
and oil eyes watch the chubby stock
ings and the twinkling feet beneath
them. At last the piper rushes in and
madly Joins the dance, piping like Il
good fellow all the while.
TEE PvoTERs DANCING"
The funniest dancing known to civil
zation is that of the "pivoters. You
don't know what piyoter is? Well, in
the slang of the city, she is a shop-girl
or factory hand who gives up most of
her nights TO dancing. Some never
work at anything else. They pursue
picnics all summer and balls all winter
The piyoter IS one of our institutions.
The boys and men she pivots with may
be mechanics or clerks or thieves or
loafers, according to what sort of
pivoter she is. She learns the poetic
science Of dancing TO the music of Il
barrel-organ on the sidewalks. She prac-
tees Il great deal on the wharves with the
Othcrgirls and "fcllers to the Wheeling
of m ACCORDION or mOuth-organ, and
quite often, when the tenement roofs
are crowded with people, she dances up
there with whistling boy for her or
cEcstra and any one she can get for
partner In short, the piyoter is for
ever dancing like gas-jet in draughty
hallway. There is always at least one
pivoters' ball every night the year
around. and You ought to see one The
girl is certain to be stunted, leather
skinned, little-cycd, and with a bang
reaching to her eyes and looking ike IL
curtain of fine black wire or horse-hair.
Her skirts hang over short hoops and
swing and sway from side to side, indie
pendent of her feet, which remind you
of clapper i'll a bell.
She and her partner stand apart with
one of his hands in hers, stuck out
rigidly at one side like a bag-catcher on
a mail train. Her other hand is on her
hip, and his other hand is spread out
on her back flat, like a plaster. If it is
a warm room You will see the print of
that hand on her dress when he lets 90.
She and he pause IA second before dane
ing, while she assumes a stolid express
sion, as if she was about to dance up to
a police justice and receive happy
sentence, while her partner wears an air
Of mingled melancholy and resig-
nation. They all look like that.
They are so fearful of re-
vealing how delighted they are that
they try to look bored. Fashion
able folks sometimes put on
the same airs. In dancing they circle
around with Il jerky, stiff-backed, spas
mOdic motion, like Il lot Of windlasscs
pulled around by invisible bars. They
reyolye little in one place, then slide
oNcr to another corner of the room and
pivot there, and 50 they move from
place to place, spinning it little, then
sliding and spinning a little more.
Like the Prince of Wales, they never
reverse; but, unlike him, they never
speak or smile during the serious bust
ness of a dance, and all. the time they
pump away at the air with their out
stretched arms as if that was the most
essential part of waltzing.
TEE COAL FAMINE.
The present scarcity of coal Is mex
ampled in the history of New York city.
There have been occasions when the
price Of coal was nearly or quite rs
high as latterly, but this was due either
TO a strike at the mines or to the ma
n@uyres Of Pennsylvania combinations,
an actual though artificial |
scarcity of coal was created. But the |
peculiar fact of the late difficulty is that !
there has been an abundance of coal at |
.hc New Jersey depots, only Just across |
he river, which was, nevertheless, |
because the men who |
shovel what have latterly come to |
be regarded as black diamonds |
rad struck for higher wages The re-
usal of the companies TO acccde to the !
ust demands of the men engaged i'll |
his extremely laborious and trying en-
1loyment has subjected the poor of |
New York to most Onerous tax, and |
ne instances are multiplying i'll which |
he niggardness of grasping corpora
ions has imposed upon the people
burdens and real distress; they |
road their operatives into strikes, and !
hen impudently ask the people to aid |
md abet them III their disregard of
What the promptings of humanity
would suggest to right-thinking per
Ons. Strikes are often encouraged |
With view Of ftlrthering speculations
II Wall street, and if schemes having
10 direct connection with the payment
II the shovellers have nothing TO do
With the prolonging of the strike in
question not few persons are mistaken.
I would take cold-blooded miscreants
o want any delay in the settlement OF
uch Il strike, because the disturbance